As if toxic pollution were not enough to worry about, China’s rivers now face possible infestation by piranhas, with sightings and even attacks on humans apparently on the rise.

A woman in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was washing her dog in a local river when a shoal of three piranha suddenly appeared and began attacking her.

One of the fish bit her hand and latched on, but fortunately she managed to shake it loose and throw it to shore, suffering a bloody and badly injured hand in the process.

She had never seen such a fish before, but after looking up pictures on the Internet she soon identified it as the notorious red-bellied piranha, normally found in the Amazon but also a long-standing and now relatively staid staple of the tropical fish trade.

Hers is apparently not the only such report – in recent years reports of piranha encounters in rivers throughout certain regions of China seem to have been on the increase.

As the climate throughout much of southern China resembles that of the piranha’s native habitat, there is thought to be a considerable danger of this robust and highly fecund species becoming established, with potentially disastrous consequences for China’s already ruined ecosystems and a not inconsiderable risk to humans.

Chinese law being what it is, there are few restrictions on introducing invasive species and no realistic prospect of enforcing them, so as China’s burgeoning middle class comes to know better the joys of fickle and irresponsible pet ownership, it seems likely releases of the piranha may only the first of many new arrivals – although this being China, there will at least be an incentive to catch them.

Thankfully they can’t survive in North America’s winter climate. Only Cali, Texas & Florida have winters warm enough for them to take seat. Which is why they’re illegal to sell on the southern states.

A bigger threat to North America comes from idiots releasing snakeheads into the wild. A snakehead can survive North America’s cold water temperatures and because of that, they’ve taken hold in some major US water ways.

yeah pirhana’s eyes are naturally red like that. i used to have some as pets. the problem is they grow fast depending on how u feed them. when they out grow there tanks most owners refuse to buy new ones and head to the nearest water ways to get rid of them. :/ this is how they mainly end up unwanted in area water ways of the world. we have had sightings here where im @ also and we have winter months. even tho there tropical they survive well.

Well damn, talk about fate biting you in the ass. Now China has piranhas to deal with. I just hope to God that they don’t do something stupid or ghetto and the the damn fish into some new source of food. God knows what kind of shit those demonic fishes may carry. Plus how the hell could piranhas cross from South America(assuming that they did come from there) all the way to China!? That’s insane!

Yeah, they’ll probably take a toe or a finger if you seriously jump into a river FULL of them. But they’re not likely to full-scale attack large, live animals without either being excessively hungry or probably having a huge numerical advantage. So just 3 of them coming and attacking just her hand (probably mistaking it for a small fish or something) isn’t quite outta the question. But it is true that they’re mostly scavengers and don’t wanna screw with large humans most of the time. If you’re already bleeding out though…

Actually they do attack humans, but only if they detect traces of blood in the water. Amazon natives walk barefoot in the same waters with them, without issue, because they only enter if they do not have any fresh cuts.

That’s not a red-bellied piranha, it’s Serrasalmus rhombeus, a redeye piranha, which definitely does have that eye color.

Also, they do attack humans, depending on a lot of environmental factors.. a few piranha won’t kill a human, but they might take a couple nips at one if hungry enough, or when a school frenzies. Just because they’re not as dangerous as the media makes them out to be doesn’t mean they’re harmless.